CINCINNATI -- Two years ago, Aftab Pureval was the guy who had the duck puppet campaign ads.
On Wednesday, Pureval upped the ante: He announced his intention to challenge Steve Chabot for Ohio's 1st congressional district.
"This is not a decision I entered into lightly, or something I planned to do," Pureval said. "But on issue after issue, from trying to rip health care away from 35,000 people in Southwest Ohio to giving tax breaks to billionaires, Steve Chabot is enabling Donald Trump and moving our country in the wrong direction."
Pureval was elected as Hamilton County's Clerk of Courts in 2016. He defeated Tracy Winkler, whose family is well-known in Hamilton County conservative politics. Pureval was the first democrat elected Clerk of Courts in Hamilton County in more than 100 years.
Pureval's interest in a congressional campaign has been long speculated. Recently, his political involvement has spanned from participation in a "truth rally" to fundraising for local homeless shelters to working with the University of Cincinnati to produce a video denouncing white supremacy.
Pureval, 35, is the son of immigrants from India and Tibet. Cincinnati Magazine profiled Pureval ahead of his 2016 victory and identified him as "one of the rising young stars" of the Ohio Democratic party.
"My goal is to do in Washington what we've done here in our courthouse -- make government work for the people we serve," he said in a news release. "Our government is broken and we need a new generation of leadership to change our course."
Chabot has represented Ohio's 1st district for 20 years, according to his website. He's a graduate of La Salle High School and Northern Kentucky University's Chase College of Law.
